Clowning around

The chickens have had a rather exciting time over the last few weekends, as you can see!.......yes, that is a unicycle.

Scrambled eggs

Given that we'd been buying eggs recently, we were a bit miffed to find that our new chooks had obviously been laying eggs for about two weeks. We'd been checking the nest boxes regularly and all that time hadn't noticed they'd chosen alternative places to lay their eggs! It was particularly galling that we had to ditch all 27 eggs as we didn't know how long they'd been there!

Eggs galore!

Having found Goldie's stash of eggs, we went to see what was underneath Pecky.............sure enough, she'd obviously been laying for a while too! Though you can't see them all in this picture, Pecky had 15 eggs!

Goldie's Rosemary Bush #2

When we managed to extract Goldie from her Rosemary bush, we were absolutely flabbergasted to find that she had been sitting on 12 eggs!

Goldie's Rosemary Bush

When we finally found Goldie in the Rosemary busy we could see that she had made a nest for herself in there and was sitting on an egg. Actually, we could see a number of eggs.

Hoarding

So, the new chooks, as previously mentioned, escape the harsh treatment being dished out by the 'old girls' (only two of them now) but jumping over the fence of Stalag Chicken Run and free-ranging around the garden. The morning we found Leia dead in the coop, one of the new chooks was sitting at a rather strange angle in an odd corner of the garden, the other had gone missing. One look at the chicken in the corner and we could see that she was sitting on an egg. This was very exciting as this would be her first egg. We were quite concerned at the aparent absense of the second chicken (Goldie) and looked high and low (and next door, both sides). While peering over the fence into next door's garden, we could hear her 'singing'. It's a lovely noise she makes (reminds me of that Gizmo thing in the Gremlins movie, if anyone is old enough to remember and admit to it!). We were extremely relieved to find Goldie completely hidden right in the middle of a large, old Rosemary bush in a raised bed. You couldn't see her at all from the outside, goodness knows how she got in there.

Coup in the coop?

No, we didn't put Leia in the pot. Apart from the fact she's been a pet for the last three years and had a name, we have no idea why she dropped dead, which is another disincentive to eat her. We're still none the wiser (and presumably never will be) concerning why she died. I can't help thinking that the shock of the new arrivals might have been all too much for her. Alan suspects fowl play.

Leia off the perch

For the first time ever, the other evening I noticed that Leia was sleeping in a nest box, rather than on the perch. We've never seen her do this before. We were all out the next day so are not sure whether she was out and about or not but by the next morning she was still in the nest box and stone dead. This was quite a shock as she'd shown no signs of being ill. We're very sorry to see her go.

Creatures of habit

Ever since the day they arrived, with the exception of a few nights, Molly, Kiev and Leia have been creatures of habit. They go to 'bed' in the same order and sleep in the same place. As can be seen in the Hen Cam picture below. Leia has always slept on the perch, Molly in the end nest box and Kiev, by the large swing-open door (like a bouncer). The Hen Cam has enabled us to watch Leia sleeping while perching on a thin perch, about 40cm above the floor. She seems to mutter and snort but somehow manages not to fall off, which seems amazing. The new girls, having summoned the courage to go into the coop at night, are chased around the coop and pecked savagely by the old girls who squawk indignantly at the injustice of having to share their coop (suitable for 6-8 chickens!) with the two new arrivals. The other evening I peaked in when closing the run and was surprised to see one of the new chooks up on the perch with Leia. Ahhh, I thought, they've buried the hatchet and decided to get along. As I was closing the door I saw Leia strike out viciously at the new chicken and realised that perhaps they had a little while to go yet.

Hen cam action!

Voyeurs?

We have installed a miniature wildlife camera inside the hen coop, so that we can watch the shenanigans of the chooks 'behind closed doors' (or rather door). As dusk approaches and the hens head inside for the night, the family gathers around the television to watch the intrigue and fascination of life inside the coop...........

I know, we really should get out more!

Foul fowls

Original hens continue to torment the newbies, chasing, pecking and squawking indignantly at them constantly. The newbies however, have a trick up there sleeve, there's something they can do that the 'old girls' can't (apart from lay eggs)......

They can escape Stalag Chicken Run!

Hen Wars

Our original brood (the 'old girls') were not entirely happy to see the two new youngsters. It was quite fascinating to watch the social wrangling as the 'old girls' made it clear that they were in charge and of the three of them, Kiev was the boss. Leia, swiftly became 2nd in charge and behaved like Kiev's henchman (henchhen?), paving the way for sumo-Kiev by attacking the new girls (who soon learned to adopt the submissive crouching pose when anyone else, chicken or person, came near). Felt really bad for the new girls but remembering how awful the three of them were to each other when they first arrived, knew that things would eventually settle down.

Introducing....

So here they are, our new girls. They're young (too young to lay yet) Warrens. They were selected by Abi and her good friends Rosie and Harvey, who duly named them Goldie (one has a band of feathers around her neck which have a definite golden shimmer to them) and Pecky (so named because as I bent down to take a closer look at Goldie, the other chicken started pecking my bottom! In actual fact the children wanted to call the second chicken Pecker.....but we eventually managed to persuade them otherwise!).

The kind man at the farm (who had dispatched more than 30 chickens to new homes already that day), clipped their wings for us and rather unceremoniously, packed them into a cardboard box for the journey home in the back of the car.

Here they are emerging in their new surroundings.

It was an accident....

We accidentally bought two new chickens!

Trip to the Farm

So we went to Longdown Activity Farm at the weekend with some friends. They've got some LOVELY chickens there...........the type that lay eggs!.............so................

Message from Juh-Oh

Juh-Oh asks: "Do you think that the chooks are hanging out for you to knit them a woolly jumper?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7947984.stm"

Wow! What fabulous jumpers, I might try one of those!

Not many eggs

For about 6 months now, our chickens have hardly laid any eggs. In the past month, Leia has started to lay the odd one. When you have 3 chickens, it REALLY, REALLY grates when you find yourself buying eggs! Drastic action is needed!

Scarcity of eggs

We have been in the grip of an egg drought for about 6 months now. For 5 month none of the three chooks were laying eggs, then the aptly named Leah started again, a couple of weeks ago, but she seems to have stopped again! Have started giving them Poultry Spice in an attempt to bribe them back into laying.

Door Fixed (?)

I've re-threaded the automatic door line through the mechanism and re-tied it to the door itself. Hopefully this has fixed the problem; we'll find out this evening when the light gets low.

The Chickens Are Restless

Yesterday morning I was a little later than usual going out to let the chickens out of their run. I was greeted by a chorus of indignant squawks, the sound of a whirring motor, and no sign of their ladyships.

It turned out that the automatic door had hit a hitch. It basically consists of an electic motor with a line tied around the spindle. This line is tied to the rope attached to the door, and so physically opens and closes the door. The line had snapped, leaving the door closed and the motor free-running.

Given that we installed the door system in July 2oo6, and this is the first problem we've had with it, I consider that not bad going.

I tied the door open for the day, and will get round to fixing the line ASAP.

Kiev's comment

The previous picture shows an expression on Kiev's face that suggests how she's feeling about the whole thing. When Alan had put the lid/roof on, she made the following unambiguous comment:

Custom built Sin Bin

Alan has spent the best part of the day hand-crafting a bespoke Sin Bin for Kiev. Lovingly crafted from the best materials that B&Q can offer (2x4 batten & chicken-wire), this Bowens original boasts a unique design based on tried-and-tested designs from all over the world (hooray for the Interweb!).

Features include:

• made-to-measure - just big enough (bigger than the Chimenea!) but not large enough to offer any degree of comfort.
• wire flooring (not very comfortable)
• raised flooring (encouraging a draft around the bum)
• securely fitting removable lid/roof
• newspaper beneath to catch poo

NB: water and food was added after this photo was taken. This photo reminds me of something.......what is it now.........

Shut her out

Another technique to try and persuade Kiev not to be broody anymore is to hoick her out of the nest box and close the gate into the the run, so she can't get back into the coop. This is quite mean as she then spends the rest of the day strutting round and round the outside of the run, trying to find a way in. She is like a machine that will not be distracted from her purpose (she has the demeanour of a person who REALLY needs the toilet and can't get into the loo!).

A broody chook

A broody chicken is a fascinating thing. Kiev is a Buff Orpington, and is prone to this behaviour, sure enough she was broody about the same time last year. She will sit in the nest box from dawn until dusk, day after day, not eating or drinking and not moving or exercising in any way and not laying any eggs. This year, in his valiant attempt to 'snap her out of it' Alan has tried a number of approaches which have included building a partition at the end of Stalag Chicken for Kiev to remain in solitary confinement ..........which she did............for about 3 minutes. We don't even know how she was escaping, I stood one morning with a camera to photograph her escape. I know I'm starting to sound like Mr Tweedy again but I swear, she saw me and hid behind the coop, there was a slight wobbling of the nylon netting that formed the barrier between her 'confined' area and the main part of the run and there she was, no longer in solitary! I have no idea how she did it! Another time Alan, Abi and I were all lying on the grass the other side of the run fence and none of us saw how she got across the barrier! Alan has been reading books and consulting websites and yesterday I found him shoving Kiev back into the Chimenia (see blog from June 2007), our improvised Sin Bin. When he removed her at the end of the day (covered in soot) she stomped straight back up the ramp into the coop where she remained.

Man vs. Chicken

For the past three weeks, a battle has been taking place in our back garden. On the one side you have a big, fat, caramel coloured chicken called Kiev who is driven by laws of nature as old as the species, she wants to sit on an egg until it hatches and is determined to let NOTHING prevent her from doing this (not even the lack of an egg!). On the other side is Alan who has been waging a spirited (if not entirely successful) campaign to try and stop her.

Cheeky Chickens

Recent weekends have seen Alan cleaning out the chicken coop and run, a process that has been streamlined into a 20 minute job. For the past couple of weekends, the hens seem to strut around the place, watching Alan make his preparations (getting his 'cleaning' things together) and just at the point when he is about to open the large coop door and start sweeping out, one of the chickens strolls up the ramp and installs themselves in one of the nest boxes to lay an egg. They can be in there for anything up to an hour. To watch this, you could almost think that the chickens know exactly what they're doing and that it forms part of their weekend's entertainment.

New blog

For anyone who is interested, now have another blog at: http://bowensallotment.blogspot.com/
Can you guess what it's about?!

Chickens to eat

Alan surprised me the other day by saying that he thinks we should have a few chickens and then kill and eat them. Hmmmm........

Molly on the mend

Regularly coating Molly's leg in Grapeseed Oil, followed by weekly coating in Benzyl Benzoate (had to order this from chemist, made sure I mentioned several times, very loudly that it was for my chicken and not anybody in the family as it is a treatment for scabies), seems to be working. The Benzyl Benzoate took some time to arrive and is in a huge bottle - someone else in the village orders it for their horse apparently, so I guess that's why. It is a thick, white liquid. We apply it to Molly's leg with a toothbrush. She's walking on bad leg now, still limping but much better than it was. Also, when applying treatment, her toes(do chickens have toes?!) curl up, which we take to be a good sign as for a while there, she seemed to have no feeling in her foot at all as there was no response to us touching it.

Scaly Leg?

This is what Molly's leg/foot looks like:

Molly's Scaly Leg ?

Here is Molly being very calm and placid as we 'bathed' her leg in Grape Seed Oil (though she does have an expression on her face that seems to say: "I could blind you with one peck you know!").

Hopping Molly

Poor Molly. She has had a limp for absolutely ages now and about 2 months ago it got noticeably worse so that she could not put her leg or foot down at all. She has been spending most of the time laying down (looking like one of those ceramic hen-shaped things that people used to have in their kitchen - what were they for anyway?). It even got to the point where I was having to carry her out of the coop each morning (though she managed to get herself back in at bed-time). Having consulted a few chicken Gurus and books, we are treating her as if it is Scaly Leg by immersing her leg in Grape Seed Oil (I believe any cooking oil will do, we just happened to have some Grape Seed Oil) and brushing it with an old toothbrush. It might just be wishful thinking on my part but she seems a little better. She's certainly able to get herself out of the coop in the mornings now. We will continue with the treatment and see what happens.

Slow Blog

Have completely failed to update blog recently and even to log how many eggs we get each day in the spreadsheet. Basically, we are currently getting between 1 and 3 a day. I think they're all laying, but can't be sure.

Frozen Chicken!

It is very rare for it to snow in Southampton. Even rarer still for the snow to settle. Imagine our surprise (and delight!) therefore, when we woke this weekend to find a blanket of snow on the ground and huge, fat flakes still falling.

This chickens seemed somewhat bewildered and kept off the snow, inside the coop-run. The snow was only around for half a day so I have no idea what they would have done if it had stayed for longer.

Al found great amusement in watching the Chooks try to drink their water (which was frozen solid). Apparently he stood for some time, watching them pecking away at the water container like fat, mutant woodpeckers!

Back on form!

The chooks are back on egg-laying form! We are getting an egg most days now. Have really missed a nice poached egg for breakfast at the weekend. Am attempting to keep track of how many eggs they produce this year, for anyone who's interested, click on the Egg Count link at the top right of the page (or click here).

The drought is over!!!

At last, after months of egg-drought, today we got an egg! Am pretty sure it was Leia (she really did have her chicken-legs crossed!). I bet she couldn't believe her bad luck when, after so long, she needed to lay an egg and I was cleaning the coop out! Poor thing (you see how easily all is forgiven!). Am hoping that the other two will now follow suit (they copy each other in every other way!). Might consider putting some light in the coop next winter.....

Indoors

The chooks have been spending quite a lot of time indoors today. I cleaned out the coop mid-morning and they all looked quite disgruntled at having to leave while I did so. Leia hung around impatiently at the top of the ramp, watching me through the doorway and Molly hopped in through the swing-open side-door at one stage when I was half way through. As soon as I had finished, Leia came in and inspected. It might just be hopeful thinking on my part but she seemed to have an air of having her legs crossed about her!

2008

New year, new-look blog, what do you think?

Eggless!

It's been about three months since any of our girls have laid an egg! Yesterday I had to BUY half a dozen eggs! My threats to 'put them all a very big pot' seem to be falling on deaf chicken ears. Today I got excited because there was no sign of Molly in the afternoon and I thought she might be in the coop laying an egg. I soon realised that she was actually under the coop, lounging in a dust-bath that must be half way to Australia by now!

Poultry brains!

Last night was a foul evening (please excuse the pun!), it was lashing down with rain and the wind was thrashing the trees around. It gets dark pretty early now too. I noticed, late afternoon, that the poor old chooks were all huddled underneath the coop, trying to stay dry. The pop-hole door (you may remember) operates on an automatic mechanism (solar powered no less!) so that it closes when it gets dark. After dark, when the rain had stopped, I popped outside to close the external door of the chicken run as usual. I was greeted by the rather pathetic site shown in the photo.

It seems 'the ladies' had missed closing time and were all huddled in a pile just outside the closed door. You might think that this is easily rectified, simply open the door and they'll all trundle in. This would, however, be ignoring the fact that it was now dark and after dark the chickens are in bed....wherever they happen to be and whatever the conditions are like! We have come across this problem before, they simply will not budge from the position that they find themselves in when the sun goes down.

Hmmmmmm. I opened the door and tried for about 10 minutes to persuade them to go through it into the nice warm coop. They stared back at me (one eye at a time) and looked thoroughly unamused. I prodded, cajoled, nudged and enticed, all to no avail. I decided to call for re-enforcements and drove to Hamble to fetch Al.

On return we decked ourselves out in thick coats and gardening gloves, expecting continued reluctance and a bit of a battle. In the event, I opened the door, prodded and nudged Leia (you can see she was first in the queue) a bit more and in she shuffled. Of course, once you've got one on side, there is no problem, they operate in a similar way to sheep, so in they all popped, making soft clucking noises as if to say "about time too!".

Training chickens?

Am wondering whether we are getting the most out of our chickens. Perhaps something like this would be worth exploring?

Trip to vet?

Was all set for trip to vet today. Having previously said that I would not take chickens to vet again as it is not economically sensible (and it's embarrassing in the waiting room!), I realised that the economics and humiliation are quite rapidly re-assessed when faced with ailing chicken. However, Kiev seemed much improved this morning and I watched her eat and drink, she didn't seem to be gasping or even breathing heavily. As the day progressed she seemed to speed up a bit too (no longer sluggish) and by the end of the day, I threw some strawberry tops into Stalag Chicken Run and she came pounding towards me like a poultry Sumo wrestler (a joy to behold!).

Kiev still poorly!

Consulted chicken gurus and administered everything advised that we could get our hands on in a hurry. I tried to establish whether or not Kiev might have an impacted crop (this meant re-finding out what a crop is, where it is and how I might be able to tell if it was impacted or not). There was a lump in general crop area, but after second opinion and discussion with Alan, we realised we had no idea if this was normal or not, but massaged lump for a while anyway, Kiev didn't seem to mind. Next, dug out left over anti-biotic liquid prescribed for Molly when I thought she was on death's door (it turned out she was about to lay her first egg and it was enormous! - see August 2006 blog entries if you've really got nothing better to do!) and added this to chook's water. Next, administered Flubenvet (wormer) via their food. Kiev had to be lifted into coop tonight, she had settled under the coop, unable/willing to go inside. Fingers crossed.

Kiev sick

There's something wrong with Kiev. She's sort of breathing heavily, seems to be struggling to breath, a bit wheezey. Her whole body is heaving with the effort of breathing and she's got a lot of white poo stuck to her bottom. Have consulted chicken gurus and it sounds like a trip to the vets might be necessary for some anti-biotics. Unfortunately, chickens are particularly prone to respiratory problems and the books/gurus say it could be a cold, gape worm, heart problems etc. Fingers crossed.

Outwitting chickens

The chooks are all tucked up nicely in bed (inside the coop). The reason being that at 4pm yesterday we removed the perch from the run, which meant that when it was time for the United Poultry Front of Netley (UPFN) to congregate, they had nowhere to perch! Ah-ha! We are smarter than our chickens!

Stubborn solidarity!

Feeling sorry for Kiev in her Sin Bin and on the advice of Chicken Guru II, I let Kiev back in with the others today and she seemed recovered, no heading off to nest box at all. In fact, none of them are heading off to the nest box............at all. It is now 09.30pm and the three of them are sitting on the perch in the run (it is no coincidence that they are all facing the house I'm sure) staring defiantly (with one eye each) towards the back door of the house. I just tried to lift them from the perch into the coop (so they don't get eaten by a fox in the night) but the three of them ganged up on me and all hell broke loose in the run, three fat chickens flapping and shrieking (Molly actually went for me) and me, crouched down, shuffling around the run trying to catch them. I retreated in defeat and will leave them to their stubborn fate tonight.

Kiev in Sin Bin

So here she is in her Sin Bin, she's not very happy about it but I guess that's the idea. She was particularly unhappy when Guinness (the cat) came and had a close look, so we have banned him from visiting. Need to check how long we are supposed to confine Kiev to the Sin Bin...............

Cosy Kiev

Here is Kiev, firmly ensconced in her nest box, without intervention, she would stay in here all day and night, for weeks on end.............so we intervened....

Tough love

Yesterday we were introduced to a new friend who has become Chicken Guru II, he advised that the only way to deal with the broody Kiev was to assign her to a few days in the Sin Bin. Over the course of a BBQ we considered the various Sin Bin options available (milk crate, cat basket etc.). The idea is that the Sin Bin is not a comfortable place to be, separate from the other chickens and does not offer any possibility of roosting on a nest. One option presented itself which might be considered a little inappropriate but the size and layout offers many advantages (easy access for topping up food and water, not very comfortable floor, ventilated etc.) so this morning we have braced ourselves and put Kiev in the Sin Bin............

Kiev still broody

Kiev is still broody, taking every opportunity to sit in the nest box (whether there is an egg there or not). Every day we take her from the nest box several time a day and encourage her outside. She stays out for about 20 minutes before heading straight back into the nest box. Yesterday at about 4pm I closed the door into the run so that she couldn't get back into the coop. After about an hour she seemed quite upset, pacing round and round the outside of the run trying to figure out how to get into the coop. This broodiness has been going on for some time now, I fear drastic measures are necessary.......

Wire protection

Alan has fixed some chicken wire on the the inside of Stalag Chicken Run, at the bottom, in attempt to stop Molly from rubbing her feathers from her neck. Fingers crossed.....

Molly's neck

Poor Molly, she pushes her head between the wooden stakes of Stalag Chicken Run to reach the fresh turf grass, unfortunately, this has led to the feathers around her neck being rubbed away, revealing the "bumpy" chicken skin beneath.

Perked up

When I produced a bunch of grapes and a slice of bread however, she soon perked up and seemed back to her old self. Inside her nextbox, where she had been sitting were two of the hottest eggs I have ever come across! (we threw them out). Kiev has still been spending a lot of time in the coop but she has at least been out a few times over the past couple of days.

Extraction of Kiev

Alan bravely donned a pair of gardening glove and some long sleeves and entered Stalag Chicken with great resolve. I went and got the camera.

We had been warned that Kiev might not be very happy about her eviction but in the event, she took it very well. Not a sound, Alan placed her on the floor and she just lay there, a bit heeled over to one side, looking not very happy. She was quite a sorry sight in fact.

Chicken Guru

We consulted our Chicken Guru concerning what to do about the indolent Kiev and her hermit like tendencies. The advice came over the telephone via a 'translator/interpreter' and as such was subject to substantial 'interference' along the lines of "you should ring her neck" and/or "drop-kick her over the fence". Eventually a more tempered response (much more in keeping with our Chicken Guru) came. We were to extract Kiev manually from the nest box...............Hmmmm, I decided to wait until Alan returned home from work!

Spring chicken, spring clean

It was time to clean the chooks out today but Kiev showed no signs of budging from her nest box. When we started to remove things from around her, Leia decided she would show some solidarity and join Kiev inside the coop (even though it was mid-day!). As you can see from the picture, Leia was perching in her preferred position. You can tell it is her preferred position by the huge pile of poo underneath where she sits!

Sitting Kiev

Kiev has been sitting in the middle nest box in the coop for the past 4 or 5 days. I haven't seen her come out at all, not even to eat or drink. She's a big girl and obviously has some reserves but am starting to wonder how long she can keep this up. I have heard about birds getting broody, have no idea what sets them off but she seems determined to stay in there. She's actually quite sociable while she's in there, Abi has been stroking her and says she keeps 'burping', this is a sort of snoring noise that Kiev is making when she is stroked. She seems perfectly happy and looks fine, she's just not coming out! Must consult chicken Guru's.

Leia 'scape

When Abi and I arrived home today, we were in the lounge chatting when Abi's eyes became as large as dinner plates as she looked past me into the back garden shrieking "Leia, Leia, Leia!", pointing and jumping up and down. I was quite fearful of what I might see when I turned around. It turned out to be this:

After staring stupidly, glued to the spot, I did the next sensible thing ........ grabbed the camera to take a picture (Alan doesn't believe what these pesky chickens get up to when he's not here!).

There followed a breif altercation between Leia and myself comprising Leia looking defiantly at me (one eye at a time) and seemingly choosing which bit of our beautiful new lawn she was going to land on, while I danced from toe to toe in an attempt to achieve weightlessness on our newly laid turf, while simultaneously waving a wet suit boot (it was the only thing I had to hand!) at Leia in a bid to 'encourage' her back into Stalag Chicken. I am happy to say I prevailed.......this time.

Without a perch to sit on....

Having deftly put the chickens to bed, Julie (hitherto to be known as 'The Chicken Consultant') then suggested that if we removed the outside perches, this might persuade The Girls to head inside for the night. We tried this today and Hey Presto! They have all taken themselves off to bed! (thanks Julie!)

All for one....

All three chickens are now staging a 'sleep out' protest, preferring to sit on the outside perch, rather than go inside the coop at dusk. As feared, this seems to be because the dreaded Red Mites are back, they are getting bitten during the night by the Red Mites and are therefore preferring to stay outside.

At the weekend we took the coop apart and got rid of the horrible little mites but the Chooks seem to need a bit more convincing and all three now need to be carried, bodily into the coop every night.

This weekend we had a couple of friends around who kindly offered to do the business and actually made a much smoother job of putting the chickens to bed than we do (they've got a bit of prior experience with chickens).

Relations deteriorating

Since fencing off the chickens to their own half of the garden, poultry/human relations have become somewhat strained, not to say frosty! Every time I am within eyesight of Molly she lets out an end-of-the-world type screech. With the lovely weather, I have been wearing open toed shoes and flip flops and now, every time I enter Stalag Chicken Run, Molly follows me round the run pecking violently at my toes! Today I had to fend her off with a plank of wood!

Big Fat Chook

Twice during the past week, rather than take herself to bed before the door closes as it gets dark, Kiev has perched on the high perch in the run and sat there like a huge feathered lump. On both occasions I have donned a pair of gloves and long sleves and lifted her off the perch and manhandled into the coop through the side door. Abi has a theory that Kiev is too fat to get in the door at the top of the ramp but she manages to get in to lay her eggs. This evening, I see Molly has decided to join her. I think they are cross about being fenced in and have chosen tonight for both of them to stay out because Alan is out and they think it will be amusing for me to deal with them on my own. Am beginning to feel like Mr Tweedy from 'Chicken Run', "those chickens are definitely up to something!"

Escapoultry

This morning I was greeted by the back door of our house by Leia who padded hopefully around the corner in search of tit-bits. This is not good news. Leia is a Road Island Red and the most vertically-mobile of the three chickens. It has taken her a couple of weeks but she has obviously worked out that she can jump/fly out of Stallag Chicken Run! Obviously the new grass looked very green on the other side and she decided to investigate further! Can only hope that being on the 'other side' without Molly and Kiev was not all it cracked up to be for Leia and that she will not make a habit of it (or teach the others!).

Solar Success

The Solar Panel, powering the automatic door for the hen coop has been in place for over two weeks now and all seems well. Alan checked the power in the batteries today (he had to do this in the dark with a torch which was quite amusing to watch!) and it was fine. Hooray!

Operation Grass Reclaim #8

Actually, truth be told, there was a little bit of turf left so we have put it in Stallag Chicken. Can't think that it will last too long in there! Might use the chickens' turf as an experimental sample piece, to see if the 'Worm Wee' from the wormery works well as a grass feed for it (or just kills it off!).

Operation Grass Reclaim #7

Ta-da! Operation Grass Reclaim is complete! Shaun has done a fantastic job and new turf was laid today (on our side of the fence - not the chickens'!).

Hop-along Molly

Molly has developed a bit of a limp. Examined foot today which showed no signs of obvious damage. Have so far managed to resist temptation to rush her off to the vet (they laugh when you turn up with a chicken in a cat basket!).

Operation Grass Reclaim #6

I think the chooks are beginning to figure out what's going on.....

Operation Grass Reclaim #5

Shaun has been hard at work in the garden this week creating Stallag Chicken Run. It is a very solid construction that would contain a herd of Yaks (well, miniature ones anyway!). Alan says we're not getting any Yaks and seems quite definite about this.

Battery Hens

Here it is, a solar powered chicken coop!

The small solar panel sits on the top of the sloping roof of the nest boxes and (hopefully!)...................charges the 4 batteries fitted in the automatic door unit.



Fingers crossed that there is enough sun for the chickens to get out in the morning!

Installation

Here is Alan running the wire from the solar panel, through the run, to the automatic door operating unit. NB chickens nowhere to be seen!

Solar unit

This is what the little solar battery charger unit looked like (before it got 'altered' for the coop).

Tell-tale signs...

A few tell tale signs to prove that Alan is indeed an engineer!

Alan's Renewable Energy Project (#1)

Alan has a plan. While attempting to reduce our energy use in the house, we are experimenting with a few things (solar re-chargable batteries, solar lights, LEDs etc.). During the course of which Alan has realised that it should be possible to power the 4 AA batteries that run the automatic door of the Hen Coop using a small solar panel. [For those who don't know us, this is probably enough information to enable you to deduce that Alan is in fact an Engineer]. So, this was today's project!

This Other Eden

In anticipation of the chickens being fenced off soon and gripped with enthusiasm for the summer, I decided (perhaps a bit prematurely) to get some new herbs for my raised herb bed in the garden. Following the chilli plant debacle (see earlier blog) I have taken precautions and created what I hope is chicken proof defence by covering upturned hangining baskets with chicken wire and placing them over the new herb plants to prevent them being eaten. The finished results reminded me of something....

Operation Grass Reclaim #3 (BEFORE)

Here are the before pics to show the state of the garden before the chickens are fenced off (hopefully in a couple of weeks time). There is practically no grass left and they poo absolutely everywhere! We are hopeing to have them fenced into their own section of garden and new turf laid on 'our' part of the garden, so that we can use the garden for usual liesure activities during the summer.

Operation Grass Reclaim #2

Right, realising we are out of our league as far as being out witted by the chickens, we have called in the professionals (or rather a professional) named Shaun who is kindly going to fence off our chickens. Shaun has about 10 chickens of his own, so knows the score. In preparation for the fencing off operation we have dug the stump and roots out from a cherry tree that passed away a couple of years ago. This was quite an operation requiring a spade, a fork and enthusiastic wielding of an axe (that was my job). Molly (the chicken) and Abi (the daughter) were very interested in the whole afair and we were very lucky to have no injuries! The result was a rather large, loosely back-filled hole in the garden which Molly and Kiev spent the whole afternoon wallowing in, they don't normally have a dust bath that is in the sunlight and obviously really enjoyed it!

Operation Grass Reclaim #1

With Summer fast approaching and the majority of our back garden scratched away to oblivion by the chickens, we are considering what we might do to reclaim a portion of garden for use during the summer (to sit and play on a bit of grass). I suspect this will be a battle of wits, cunning and determination between us and the chickens and am not at all certain of our chances of success. Round one comprised sowing grass seed on a 'trial' section of the garden. We did so this morning. The chickens thoroughly approved and can be seen heartily feasing on the seed. Fencing them off is clearly going to be the only option and I suspect they will not be too happy about this!

Laying again

One of the chickens never stopped laying, all through the winter, not sure which one but they are all back on lay now, so 1-3 eggs a day again. Have discovered how to make lemon merangue pie (thanks Sue!), this uses 7 eggs (for the curd and the merangue) and is very yummy!

Operation Grass Reclaim #4

So, first we need to get rid of the rotten apple tree (to make more room for chickens in the part of the garden that will become theirs). Shaun makes rather light work of this!

Molting over...

It seems that Kiev and Leia have stopped molting and in fact Kiev has grown some lovely new white and caramel coloured feathers.

She looks like a fine specimen of Buff Orpington at last (she has even got feathers on her bottom at last - no more baboon bum, hooray!).

Not amused!

The chooks looked such a sorry sight after their adventerous night that I felt the need to take some pics.

Molly seemed to think this was a little insensitive (she might have a point!).

Topless!

It was a wild old night last night here is Southampton, even so, I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I saw that the roof of the coop/run had blown off! The roof is really heavy, it takes two of us to lift it (although when pushed I found out this morning that in fact one person can reinstate it on their own!).

Leia and Kiev (who are frequently found lacking in the common sense department) were huddled inside the coop with the lashing rain having soaked them to the skin. Molly, showing a bit more sense, was underneath the coop.

I don't know when the roof blew off, but the inside of the coop, the newspaper and wood shavings, were absolutely sodden. The three nestboxes were still nice and dry and snug, but as it was not night time and not time to lay an egg, the chooks evidently elected not to use them.

Molting Chickens

For some time now, we have noticed quite a lot of Kiev's and Leia's feathers in the coop and run and generally around the place. It seems they are molting, which evidently chickens do about once a year (further information about molting here). Aparently most chickens stop laying while they are molting and they generally molt when the light levels get poorer. This seems a bit daft to me as their feathers fall out just as it's getting cold! (mind you, not having any teeth isn't a brialliant design feature either!). One of our chooks is still laying most days and although Molly doesn't seem to be molting, I think it is Leia who is still laying. Leia and Kiev are starting to look a bit scrawney as you can see!

"Going off lay"

Egg production has really dropped with the changing of the seasons, we are getting one every other day or so. We think this is Leia and the other two have given up. This might have been a matter of concern for us (given that this is our first winter with the chickens) but today, Jill Archer put my mind at rest by referring to the fact that her hens were "going off lay". I am now completely reassured, safe and sure in the knowledge that if it was on 'The Archers', it must be legit. The chooks are going to bed at 16.15 now! Have added some worming powder to their layer pellets as it has been a while.

Holiday care

We had a week away recently and the chickens were spoiled rotten by Lynn from over the road who treated them with tit bits and even cleaned them out during our absence! (definitely over and above the call of duty!). I think they are missing her visits (Thank you Lynn!).

Temperature drop

The temperature has dropped significantly here, with frost most mornings this week. The nights are drawing in and with the clock changes, the chickens have adjusted their self imposed bed time accordingly. Today they were all in bed by 16.50! Having problems with the auto door which does not seem to be working.